Today was the first day of school here at Tiny U.    We've recently developed a new program that funnels most of its students into my class, so the class was double the size this year.

That's 12 instead of 6.

It's an interesting mix.  I have everything from 17 and 18 year old traditional freshmen to students who are my age and returning to finish up the prerequisite classes for medical school.  Most of them are very bright, and you can bet I'm going to be riding the asses of the low ones to keep up, because they all have serious potential to do well.

As usual, the first class was pretty short.  I had a 15 slide power point which was both introductory material (biological chemistry stuff) and points about the syllabus (show up, don't cheat, do your work, come to office hours).  Then we talked briefly about lab safety and all the dos and don'ts of the lab.  Most of which are common sense.  Like don't touch a hot plate, you can't tell if it's too hot or not.  Or never pipet by mouth.  Umm.  EWWWWW.  And yet, there are idiots in this world who do.  I swear.

We were done by the time I should have been done lecturing.  Yay me.  So I spent the next hour wrestling a copier and copying the first two chapters for students whose books still haven't arrived.  See, one of the drawbacks of being Tiny U. is that we don't have a bookstore.  So students have to order their books online or look for them at USC, UCLA, or some other large bookstore.  And that can take time.  In a class I taught 2 years ago, the books were backordered from the publisher and we couldn't do anything about it for 3 weeks.  Ugh.  What a mess.

The other thing about this class is that it starts at 8am.  Which means that to get here on time I need to leave my house before 7am.  6:30 if I need to make a stop at the gas station or Whorebucks. (or Coffee Bean.... or Peet's).  And then when I get here, it's a toss up as to whether I'll be able to get set up as I need security to let me in to the classroom and to open up the computer podium for me.  Urg.  Try finding a security guard when you need one.  In the hood.....

Anyway, if you need me 8-12 Tuesday and Thursday or 9-10 Friday, Pacific Time, AM, you know where I'll be.  Broadening young minds.  Heh.  Yeah, that's it.

Posted by: caltechgirl at 10:37 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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1 I hope the first day went great!

Posted by: Richmond at August 28, 2007 11:07 AM (kN6no)

2 14 more weeks until December breal!

Posted by: wRitErsbLock at August 28, 2007 11:42 AM (+MvHD)

3 breaK even

Posted by: wRitErsbLock at August 28, 2007 11:42 AM (+MvHD)

4 Better you than me. *grin* First of all.... early!!! (Help!) Second of all... teaching!!! (Kill me!) LOL.

Posted by: Teresa at August 28, 2007 01:06 PM (rVIv9)

5 ugh. good luck and all that.

Posted by: vw bug at August 28, 2007 04:48 PM (FPOeI)

6 Wow, I'm glad I don't need security to let me in places...I get here at 7 and I'm usually the one unlocking all the doors. Security kind of doesn't know we exist because we're away from the main campus. And on the textbook thing - we have a bookstore but I have many, many students whose "financial aid checks haven't come in" (or that's what they tell me), and so they don't have the book. Or they don't buy the book because the money that they save buys a couple rounds of beer. Or whatever.

Posted by: ricki at August 29, 2007 05:26 AM (O5SYw)

7 I feel your pain. Not as the teacher, but as the student.

Posted by: Mia at August 31, 2007 10:52 AM (v1Ec9)

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Over at Patterico's, guest blogger WLS does a great job of laying out the prosecutorial process in the Michael Vick case.

WLS explains the strategy of the superseding indictment, offense level, the possibility of sentence enhancement, the discretion of the judge in sentencing, and why the prosecution is pushing for a sentence of more than 12 months.

There's lots of great question and answer in the comments, too, so pop over and find out what you've been dying to know.

Posted by: caltechgirl at 09:08 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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August 2007 is officially Fucking Asshole Ex-Spouse month. I know of at least 6 separate incidents (both online and in RL) where my friends and their children have been having issues with psycho evil exes, for seemingly no reason.

Is there something in the water?

Y'all have my love and my sympathy, and the fucking bitches/ dickless assholes on the other side of the equation can just FOAD. Eternally. If there's anything I can do, you know where to find me. I just hope this sentiment isn't contagious.

Don't you stupid fuckers know that the ONLY ones who get hurt in these scenarios are your KIDS?

Posted by: caltechgirl at 02:40 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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7:57 AM
B lbs 4 oz
18 inches
Sooo cute. All boy. Looks like me and Sadie.

Posted by: caltechgirl at 11:21 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Too much crappy stuff going on around me.  It rubs off.

UPDATE: Work is working itself out without me needing to do anything else at the moment.  Feeling much smiley-er.

Thanks for the well-wishes, they were much appreciated!

Now, off to buy a screen door!

Posted by: caltechgirl at 10:31 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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The universe is conspiring against me.



It's the small pathetic things that rankle so much.  Like your husband
being called into jury duty on FRIDAY after being told to go about his
business all week and basically being told that he will be sitting on
his ass from 7:30 am until 4pm, thank you very much, on THE day you
made plans to go out of town early, and for which you took the day off
of work.... and since you are sitting at home, the cable decides to go
out,and of course the internet with it.  And when the son-of-a-bitch
finally comes back up, the fucking router refuses to do its job, so I'm
now within 6 inches of no internet and the TV is fuzzy on and off.



Not to mention that he got lost driving into downtown, ended
up in East LA and I had to talk him in to where he was going after
figuring out where he was.  FROM 10 MILES AWAY.



Big things I can handle.  I can deal.  I have a gameplan.  This piddly little shit?  I could murder someone today.

*FFO = Friday Fuck Off.  Here.

Posted by: caltechgirl at 10:02 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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I think we'll be getting one of these for the Princess!

h/t Ken S

Posted by: caltechgirl at 09:58 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Or, I have a lot to say and not much time....

-- So we did a LOT of home improvement type stuff this weekend. Here's a partial list: New bathroom sink, new bathroom light fixture, new TP holder attached to sink cabinet, old TP holder and towel bar removed, wall heater removed, installed two new light fixtures, repaired the old ceiling fan in our den (it still squeaks, but we're no longer afraid it will detach itself from the ceiling and careen around the room) replaced the dimmer switch in dining room, and prepped our ceiling for the ceiling fan we bought. Today, hubby did the exterior paint touch up work left from the termite repair work and cleaned out and re-seated the rain gutters. Next up: shelves in the linen closet, two ceiling fans, a chandelier in the dining room, and paint touch-ups. I'll get some pictures up soon. Now that 90% of the crap is put away, it's easier to do these silly little things that take so long and make you so frustrated....

-- Thursday night we went to the Dodgers/Giants game. The Dodgers' staff are super nice and helpful when you have obnoxious idiots in your section. Everyone in our section thinks they asked us to leave for asking them to remove people, but guess what? This "fat fucking bitch" (yes, that's what she called me) got better seats in another section for the rest of the game thanks to you being an asshole. Oh, and Barry still sucks.

--We're WAAAAY behind on TV. I've got about 12 hours of catch up from this week's TV (we just got through The Closer from Monday, and we watch that religiously! Usually we see it on Monday or Tuesday at the latest)... Mom and Dad were here Wednesday to Sunday (we took them to the game, and Dad helped with the various bathroom projects), and that also cut into TV time.

--We've been having a visitor of another sort as well. Guest blogger/ frequent commenter/ buddy ZTZCheese and her hubby are on vacation, and their bearded dragon has been living on our patio, eating his worms and soaking up the sunshine. Pictures soon if I get the ok from his humans.

-- I missed a bunch of people's birthdays this last week. Sorry guys. I was a little out of it. Much love to all of you. You know who you are.

Posted by: caltechgirl at 05:00 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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1 goodness. good for you being so productive. as for that pathetic excuse for a human at the game: she'll get hers. I would have been ejected for punching her.

Posted by: wRitErsbLock at August 06, 2007 06:16 PM (0Pi1o)

2 What is it with people doing such crap jobs putting in ceiling fans? Our last house had several that were like yours (ready to take a spin around the room). My husband had to take half the ceiling down in one room to get the new one in correctly! Anyhow, isn't it wonderful to get stuff done. Now you don't have to worry about it. *grin*

Posted by: Teresa at August 06, 2007 06:30 PM (gsbs5)

3 Oh, and Barry still sucks *sigh* I love you.

Posted by: Ken S, Fifth String on the Banjo of Life at August 06, 2007 06:38 PM (Yh9SA)

4 Totally funny, largely-unrelated note: Several years ago, my daughter came up with the epithet "Big Butt" for the One Who Shall Not Be Named Despite His Preparation to Break the Great Hank Aaron's Record. In the recent series between the sainted Dodgers and the Foul Satan-worshipping HellSpawn, some kind of reference was made to the (no doubt steroid-enhanced) tookus of said "Big Butt". The wife and I got a big kick out of that. Oh, and we also got a kick out of how the F S-W HS announcers (who actually happen to be pretty good) mentioned that the Dodger's left field bleachers section does the best rendition of the "Barry Sucks" song.

Posted by: Ken S, Fifth String on the Banjo of Life at August 06, 2007 06:50 PM (Yh9SA)

5 Hmm. One last comment before I move on and let you get back to the home repair stuff. The same daughter who came up with that thoroughly appropriate epithet for that Foul Beast, also wrote a baseball song some years ago. I can't remember all the lyrics exactly, but here's a partial to the best of my recollection: Giants suck They suck suck suck They suck and they suck and they really suck They suck all day and they suck all night That's all I remember at the moment. This is the same daughter (and I SWEAR this is a true story) delighted her grandma as follows: When she was about a year and a half old, my mom came to visit and we went to a Dodger game at Candlestink park (this was in 1986). Got some cool pics and the Dodgers won. Anyway, after the game we got home and my mom decided to teach DNO some cool phrases. She said "Can you say 'Go Dodgers'?" DNO said "Go Dodgers!" The my mom, planning to teach her some less-than-civil phrases, said, "Can you say 'Giants'?", and DNT let out with a really GREAT raspberry. "Pthththththth!" Man I wish I'd had a tape recorder.

Posted by: Ken S, Fifth String on the Banjo of Life at August 06, 2007 07:05 PM (Yh9SA)

6 Oh, one more: someday I'll tell you the story of putting up a ceiling fan in our house in Santa Cruz. It's a wonder I'm still alive.

Posted by: Ken S, Fifth String on the Banjo of Life at August 06, 2007 07:07 PM (Yh9SA)

7 When you said a LOT of home improvement, you meant a LOT! Makes me wish I weren't so lazy... ROFL!

Posted by: pam at August 07, 2007 04:53 AM (l6NIn)

8 I think after all your hard work, you deserve a vacation. Maybe somewhere South-East. I know, you can come to South Florida!! You can stay at our house. That reminds me, I have a few home improvement things that need to get done. I'm looking for volunteers. ;-) Love ya!

Posted by: Amanda at August 07, 2007 06:03 AM (ay+rD)

9 Fine by me. He's a handsome lizard Try to get his sexy side!

Posted by: ZTZCheese at August 07, 2007 01:10 PM (Rpjgo)

10 Me? I'm sick as a dog. But damn, you DO kick some ass, girliefriend. Yay! on you for the home improvement-y stuff and yay! on Dodger staff for removing you from that horrible woman. And I don't watch sports but that man has an unusually large - everything - but his head worries me. That ain't natural. I'll try to be patient about the pictures. Heh.

Posted by: Margi at August 07, 2007 11:25 PM (DwLKz)

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